Day Fifty-Seven: Double Crossing

I guess I'll have to admit, I have a slight fascination with trains. I wasn't really even aware of it until I started this project, but trains are the subject of a lot of my pictures.

Maybe it comes from all of the toy trains I did or didn't play with growing up.

Maybe it is a result of watching my favorite movie heroes weave their way through trains on the big screen (Indiana Jones with his whip, Marty McFly with his hoverboard...)

Maybe it is simply due to the fact that I now live across the street from a train depot.

I think what interests me most is the stark contrast of old and new as these trains pass through Lawrence, an eternally youthful college town. The first railroad line to come through Lawrence was the Union Pacific Eastern Division in 1865 - eleven years after the city itself was established.

Today some of these tracks transverse major city streets in Lawrence and are never given a second thought by drivers kachunking their way over them. A set of tracks cuts across a heavily trafficked section of 6th Street close to City Hall. The small portion of line - no more than two football fields in length - connects the Journal World newspaper printing facility to the main rail line.

I have lived in Lawrence for nearly three-fourths of my life, and the first time I can remember seeing this little track in use was only three weeks ago. I remember thinking how bizarre it felt to be waiting in a long line of cars all momentarily paused - where most had never paused before - as an old locomotive engine pulled a single rail car deliberately across a major thoroughfare.

There are no flashing signal lights or safety bars to be lowered on 6th Street. The only warning of the encroaching interruption of these drivers' commutes was a toot of the horn by the engineer who was riding alongside the massive vehicle as it peeked its way beyond the sidewalk and into the roadway.

Besides thinking how incongruous this all was (okay, I looked up the word incongruous after the fact - but still, it was incongruous), I was also wishing I had brought my camera with me. I didn't know when I would get to see this again!

Well, driving home today that old engine caught my eye as it weaved its way toward the Journal World building, preparing to lock onto that single rail car - and this time I had my camera with me. So I quickly turned the car around, parked without feeding the meter (that's my car, first on the left), and snapped a few photos.

(click to enlarge)

This is the picture that I liked the best - here the 2-car train is actually crossing Vermont Street, one lazy right turn away from surpassing 6th Street and reaching its destination a stone's throw away.

I manipulated the photo both to emphasize the train (and engineer) and to give more of an old-fashioned feel to a present-day scene. I hope you enjoy it!